Breaking the stainless-steel ceiling
A writeup from Tompkins Weekly on the history of the Shared Kitchen Ithaca initiative:
In Frank Capra’s classic movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” Jimmy Stewart’s character gives up his dreams in order to save the Bedford Savings and Loan, a housing bank his father had run for years. This community institution made it possible for those of modest means to get the financial assistance to own their own house and a piece of the American dream.
The Shared Kitchen Ithaca (SKI) project is similar to the Bedford Savings and Loan in that it will help hard-working local food entrepreneurs, many of whom are women, BIPOC or immigrants, to realize their dreams of building successful and enduring businesses. The lack of a reasonably priced, appropriately sized and properly equipped commercial kitchen space has been blocking the prospects of generations of local food entrepreneurs. Think of it as the “Stainless Steel Ceiling”.
In the summer of 2022, Rod Rotondi, a newcomer to Ithaca, started looking for commercial kitchen space to re-start one of the health food businesses he had formerly operated out of California. He could only find small community kitchens until he found the former production kitchen of GreenStar Food Coop. This is a true commercial kitchen fully built out and ready to go. However, it was too large for his needs and the pandemic was still raging so he decided to pass. But he suggested that the real estate agent talk with the economic development people in Ithaca saying that this space was perfect for a much needed shared-use commercial kitchen.
A couple of months later Rotondi was contacted by Chuck Schwerin, former Director of Business Development for Ithaca Area Economic Development (IAED) and they met up at the former GreenStar facility. Chuck then invited Thomas Knipe, Director of Economic Development for the City of Ithaca to the conversation. They agreed that our community shouldn’t miss the opportunity to take advantage of having an already built out facility instead of spending untold treasure and time building one from scratch.
In order to study the demand for a shared-use commercial kitchen and its economic viability, they reached out to the Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency (IURA) for partial funding for a Feasibility Analysis which they granted. Rotondi was contracted to undertake the study based on his two decades in the food industry, many years as a development economist for the United Nations Development Program, and his willingness to do much of the work pro-bono.
With considerable support from his collaborators, which now included local food systems legend Monika Roth, Chair of the Friends of the Ithaca Farmer’s Market, Rotondi conducted a needs assessment survey, a demand analysis, a technical evaluation of equipment and infrastructure needs, financial projections, an institutional framework and operational guidelines. The Feasibility Analysis can be found here:
http://www.cityofithaca.org/760/Economic-Development-Projects
The results of this study and the field data it provided yielded the following conclusions:
The lack of appropriate commercial kitchen space is a major impediment to the growth of local food entrepreneurs.There is a large unmet demand for affordable commercial kitchen space.A shared-use kitchen space would likely attract a sufficient number of tenants to be economically and financially viable.
Community support for this project continued to grow. They added key members including Dominick Recckio, who formerly supported local businesses at the Tompkins Chamber and has a degree in communications, Jan Rhodes Norman, local entrepreneur and community builder, and Jerry Dietz, successful local businessman and prominent philanthropist. They received support from the City of Ithaca to cover early set up costs including creating a 501©3 not-for-profit organization, Shared Kitchen Ithaca (SKI) They also received a grant of $32,500 from the IURA to subsidize participation costs for low to moderate income micro-enterprises, a $25,000 grant from the Park Foundation and a $150,000 grant for kitchen equipment from the Tompkins County Development Corporation (TCDC). They also signed the lease for the former GreenStar commercial kitchen and completed their Phase I goal of raising $175,000 from generous local donations to cover start-up costs.
SKI has chosen to empower the chronically overlooked small food business sector. This sector offers a highly leveraged impact on equity and diversity goals in addition to economic growth goals. Their strategy is to leverage community resources to support our entrepreneurs with incubation services that will offer training, guidance, networking and mentorship.
SKI will also support and collaborate with local organizations combatting food insecurity, as well as local agricultural producers with value-added food production.
SKI is poised to open this shared-use commercial kitchen in the first quarter of 2025. They hope it will be an enduring community development project which will add value to our region for years to come. They invite the community to contribute support, enthusiasm and food business ideas!
For more information visit their website at www.sharedkitchenithaca.com
Rod Rotondi is a former United Nations Development Program economist and longtime natural foods industry entrepreneur who settled in Ithaca in early 2020. He is currently President of the Board of Directors of the not-for-profit Shared Kitchen Ithaca.
Signs of Sustainability is organized by Sustainable Finger Lakes.